Luther and Lutheranism

Martin Luther was eight years old when Christopher Columbus set sail from Europe and landed in the Western Hemisphere. Luther was a young monk and priest when Michaelangelo was painting the Sistine Chapel in Rome...

ELCA Good Gifts Catalog

Assignment Process

Assignment completes candidacy for all people, including those ordained in another Lutheran church or Christian tradition, moving them toward first call and admittance to the appropriate roster in the ELCA...

Joint Observance

The ELCA Conference of Bishops' Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Liaison Committee and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs Committee commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation by signing a joint statement during a Lutheran-Catholic service of Common Prayer.

Reformation 500

Martin Luther posted his “Ninety-Five Theses” in Wittenberg on Oct. 31, 1517, and the resulting debate about Christian teaching and practice led to changes that have shaped the course of Western Christianity for almost 500 years.

For Peace in God's World

Note: What follows are excerpts from this social statement.
To read the entire statement, including endnotes and its implementing
resolutions, please go to elca.org/socialstatements.)

Adopted
by more than a two-thirds majority vote (803-30) as a social statement of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America by the fourth Churchwide Assembly on
August 20, 1995, at Minneapolis, Minnesota.

At the end of a tumultuous and violent century, we share
with people everywhere hope for a more peaceful and just world. With this
statement on international peace, we strive to strengthen our global
perspective as individual Christians and as a church body, in spite of strong
currents that push us to turn in on ourselves. As our world discards the
mind-set of the Cold War and faces the new threats and opportunities of a
changing time, we join with others in searching for what makes for peace.

Most importantly, this statement recalls that the basis of
the Church’s peace-calling is in God’s final peace, the peace of God’s eternal
reign. That calling is to proclaim the Gospel of God’s final peace and to work
for earthly peace. This statement understands earthly peace to mean
relationships among and within nations that are just, harmonious, and free from
war. It offers direction as we act to keep and to build earthly peace on the
eve of a new millennium.

1. THE GOD OF
PEACE

​All humans
also are bound together in sin. Sin, the rupture in our relation with God,
profoundly disrupts creation. Centeredness in self, rather than in God,
destroys the bonds of human community. In bondage to sin, we fall captive to
fear. Sin entangles our social structures. The Bible describes the power of
sin: ingratitude, deceit, distrust, hatred, greed, envy, arrogance, sloth,
corruption, debauchery, aggression, cruelty, oppression, and injustice. These
violate community and generate killing and war.

​God’s promise
is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Rejected by humans, Jesus was confirmed by God
who raised him from the dead in the power of the Holy Spirit, so that “on
earth” there might be “peace” (Luke 2:14). In bringing this peace,

◆ Jesus
taught love for one’s enemies;

◆ he reached out to the oppressed, downtrodden, and rejected
of the earth;

◆ he prayed for his enemies while himself being rejected on
the cross;

◆ above all,
through Jesus’ violent death, God redeemed the
world, “for...while we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God through the death of his Son” (Romans 5:10).

“The Gospel of peace” (Ephesians 6:15) heals our broken
relationship with God, removing the ultimate root of violence and injustice.
The Gospel breaks down the dividing walls of hostility among people, creates a
new humanity—making Christ Jesus “our peace” (Ephesians 2:13- 22)—and promises
the reconciliation of all things in Christ.

2. THE CHURCH, A
COMMUNITY FOR PEACE

A. Divine
Calling

Publicly gathering to proclaim and celebrate God’s Gospel of
peace, the Church uniquely contributes to earthly peace. Its most valuable
mission for peace is to keep alive news of God’s resolve for peace, declaring
that all are responsible to God for earthly peace and announcing forgiveness,
healing, and hope in the name of Jesus Christ. In praying for peace in the
world, in interceding for all who suffer from war and injustice and for those
in authority, the Church acts for peace.

By equipping the faithful to act for peace in all their
communities, the Church contributes to earthly peace. In recalling our identity
in baptism, in gathering in peace around the Lord’s Table, in telling the
biblical narrative, in teaching faith, hope, and love, the Church provides the
basics of peacemaking for all of life. The Church is the school of the Holy
Spirit, who molds and equips us to be peacemakers. “The fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control” (Galatians 5:22). With its ministry of Word and Sacrament, the
Church sustains believers in their conscientious decisions, including people
who serve in the military and defense industries, and people who refuse to
participate in all wars or in a particular war.

B. Faithful
Presence

When the Church fulfills the mandates of its divine calling,
it helps in word and deed to create an environment conducive to peace. When the
Church forsakes these mandates, it also fails to serve earthly peace. Through
faithfulness in its life and activities as a community for peace, the Church in
the power of the Holy Spirit becomes a presence for peace that disturbs, reconciles,
serves, and deliberates.

The Church is a disturbing presence when it refuses to be silent
and instead speaks the truth in times when people shout out, “‘Peace, peace,’
when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14). The Church is this presence when it
names and resists idols that lead to false security, injustice, and war, and
calls for repentance. We therefore denounce beliefs and actions that:

◆ elevate
our nation or any nation or people to the role of God;

◆ find
ultimate security in weapons and warfare;

◆ ordain
the inherent right of one people, race, or civilization to rule over others;

◆ promise a perfect, peaceful society through the efforts of a
self-sufficient humanity;

◆ despair
of any possibility for peace.

As a reconciling presence, the Church creates bonds among
different peoples, whether local or distant. It has special opportunities to
bring conflicting parties together and to keep tenuous lines of communication
open during times of crisis and war. ​

The Church is called to be a serving presence in society.
The Church serves when it holds power accountable, advocates justice, stands
with those who are poor and vulnerable, provides sanctuary, and meets human
need.

The Church as a community for peace is also to be a deliberating
presence in society. As a community of moral deliberation, the Church is a
setting of freedom and respect where believers with different perspectives may
learn from one another in the unity of faith. Issues that shape our
world—including dilemmas of military service and confronting human evil through nonviolence—
are proper themes for discussion in the Church.

3. IN GOD’S
WORLD, A FAITH...

A. Active for Peace

Trust in God’s promise of final peace freely given in Jesus
Christ alone drives us to engage fully in the quest to build earthly peace. Yet
we know this quest is complex and our accomplishments provisional. Faith in the
crucified and risen Lord strengthens us to persist even when God seems absent
in a violent and unjust world, and when weariness and hopelessness threaten to
overwhelm us.

B. Guided by
Biblical Insight

In faith we receive our world as God’s creation. We affirm
therefore that earthly peace is built on the recognition of the unity and
goodness of created existence, the oneness of humanity, and the dignity of
every person. Peace is difference in unity. It requires both respect for the
uniqueness of others—finite persons in particular communities—and
acknowledgement of a common humanity. We advocate an earthly peace that builds
on freedom and responsibility, encourages compassion, and embraces justice and
care of the earth.

We support structures and processes for ordering
relationships that are sufficiently just, open, and dynamic for people to
confront injustice and conflict nonviolently.

Earthly peace is not the same as the promised peace of God’s
present and future eternal reign. As a human achievement built in the middle of
strife, earthly peace is often fleeting and always partial. It is difficult to
build and maintain.

C. Lived in Our
Time

In hope we live out our faith in community with others and
together strive for earthly peace. As we do so, we experience a world that is
increasingly interconnected. People work, buy, and sell in a global market. The
media make us present at happenings around the world, and new communication
technologies increase available information. Economic and technological
developments make increased integration both possible and necessary. The global
dangers of nuclear weapons, environmental degradation, and population pressure
also create greater interdependence. International trafficking in illegal drugs
contributes to violence in all parts of the world.

4. POLITICAL
RESPONSIBILITY

A. Acting As Citizens

We recognize the awesome responsibility political leaders,
policy makers, and diplomats have for peace in our unsettled time. In a
democracy all citizens share in this responsibility. We encourage participation
by Christians in the affairs of government.

Our faith as Christians gives a distinctive quality to our
life as citizens. Love born of faith calls us not to harm
others and to help them in every need. The Scriptures provide us
direction. Yet we do not possess uniquely Christian international policies or a
divine or biblical politics for our nation. For political guidance we also must
rely upon reason and compassion, and examine and draw upon common human
experience through which, we believe, God is at work creating and preserving
the world.

In accordance with the Lutheran tradition,6
we affirm that governments may legitimately employ such measures as law and its
enforcement, police protection, provisions for the common defense, and
resistance to aggression. We also affirm that governments should vigor- ously pursue less coercive measures over more coercive
ones: consent over compulsion, nonviolence over violence, diplomacy over
military engagement, and deterrence over war.

With its significant economic, political, cultural, and
military power, the United States plays a vital leadership role in world
affairs. It cannot and should not withdraw or isolate itself from the rest of
the world. Neither should it seek to control or police the world. Global
challenges cannot be addressed by the United States alone; yet few can be met
without the United States’ participation.

B. Deciding
about Wars

First and foremost, love of neighbor obligates us to act to
prevent wars and to seek alternatives to them, especially in view of modern
weapons and their proliferation. For this reason, this statement focuses on
building a just peace and identifies tasks that create conditions for peace.
Yet wars and their threat still thrust themselves upon us, and we cannot avoid
making decisions about them.

5. TASKS

A. A Culture of
Peace​

Foster a dynamic vision of
difference in unity.

Promote respect for human rights.

Counter and transform attitudes
that encourage violence

Strengthen the will and ability to
resolve conflicts peacefully.

B. An Economy
with Justice

Insist that peace and economic
justice belong together.

Support just arrangements to regulate
the international economy.

Revitalize Aid.​

Support economic conversion.

C. A Politics of
Cooperation

Strengthen international
cooperation.

Improve structures of common
security.

Give high priority to arms control
and reduction.

Control and reduce the arms trade.

Advocate participatory and
accountable political structures within nations.

Encourage non-governmental organizations
and their work for peace.

Encourage and support nonviolent
action.

Care for the Uprooted.​

“GO IN PEACE”

We await the fulfillment of God’s promise of eternal peace,
not in resignation, but in grateful joy and active hope, for our time and place
are also God’s. God, who makes earthly peace possible,
calls us to gather in worship. Baptized into Christ,
we hear the Gospel and share Holy Communion, the foretaste of the peaceful
feast to come. The Holy Spirit sends us into our everyday communities to be
agents for peace. We are called to pray, and to live, for peace in God’s world.

This is Christ's church.

There is a place for you here.

We are the church that shares a living, daring confidence in God's grace. Liberated by our faith, we embrace you as a whole person--questions, complexities and all. Join us as we do God's work in Christ's name for the life of the world.